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OT: Raise the Jolly Roger: Congrats to the Houston Cheaters on their win

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DocEmrickSkitters said:
No. I don't see us ST-manipulating Castro. Likely Tucker is getting his last shot here. Also VanMeter and Park. I could see us moving out either of them (or Marisnick depending on if he's hitting) pretty easily for Castro if needed.

I'm still very high on the guy and frankly still consider him a top 10 prospect in our system. I know it seems ridiculous but the guy has very high intangibles and confidence. Has power and the ever-attractive defensive versatility. A JHay with power is absolutely a top-10 guy even taking out the outlier 2014.
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Unbelievably - Castro's turned his weakest tool into his strongest one in less than 6 months. When he was doing this in Winterball, it hurt his hitting. Now in AAA it's helping.

He's increased his BB% by a mile (22.7%), while lowering his K-rate to 25%. Hardly anyone goes from a swing-at-everything approach, directly to a high walk rate. Especially in their 20's. He's walking almost as often a he's striking out now.

Castro's making a case to be considered a core piece in Pittsburgh. If he continues to hit better, with that high walk-rate, with the kind of power we've seen in past years, look out!
 
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I don’t think they will have a hard limit on his innings and if they did they would put him on ir in august with arm fatigue it’s all about the extra year. In June Swaggerty Cruz Martin Frazier will in the every day line up with Castillo and Castro. Liover Franklin and Scott bae will join them next year all will in Indy in June.
 
Gallatin said:
Unbelievably - Castro's turned his weakest tool into his strongest one in less than 6 months. When he was doing this in Winterball, it hurt his hitting. Now in AAA it's helping.

He's increased his BB% by a mile (22.7%), while lowering his K-rate to 25%. Hardly anyone goes from a swing-at-everything approach, directly to a high walk rate. Especially in their 20's. He's walking almost as often a he's striking out now.

Castro's making a case to be considered a core piece in Pittsburgh. If he continues to hit better, with that high walk-rate, with the kind of power we've seen in past years, look out!
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You wonder how much of his historic tendencies were a "can't walk your way off the island" and trying to get attention for his power as he moved up. Now that he knows that he is considered highly enough to where he won't get overlooked if his performance merits, he is refining his approach.
 
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I'd like to see Reynolds step up a little bit soon. The pitching is obviously a general weak point, but in the games we lose, the offense has generally got basically to nothing. Some of that is the fact that Shelton's lineups can be total black holes at the bottom, but I think some of it can be avoided if Reynolds starts to get going and Hayes keeps it up. Vogey and Yoshi are regularly having good ABs, Gamel is fine, and Castillo should be playing more. The offense can't carry the team, but even with good pitching, we are going to need a solid 4 runs a game.
 
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DJ Spinoza said:
I'd like to see Reynolds step up a little bit soon. The pitching is obviously a general weak point, but in the games we lose, the offense has generally got basically to nothing. Some of that is the fact that Shelton's lineups can be total black holes at the bottom, but I think some of it can be avoided if Reynolds starts to get going and Hayes keeps it up. Vogey and Yoshi are regularly having good ABs, Gamel is fine, and Castillo should be playing more. The offense can't carry the team, but even with good pitching, we are going to need a solid 4 runs a game.
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Reynolds looked terrible against both Layer and Burnes. I was way more impressed with Hayes' ABs.

Yoshi has been a problem too.
 
Keller looks pretty sharp to me so far, HR notwithstanding. I'm not confident it will continue, but he's moving the ball around and getting whiffs again, which wasn't true in the last start.

I think he's going to need to be perfect the rest of the way, as will anyone who comes after him, because the offense looks lifeless vs. Woodruff, and he's easily the kind of pitcher who will cruise through 7 in that situation. I think you need 5 out of Keller, no more runs, then maybe 2 out of Yajure and whichever reliever depending on the situation. We might need the perfect bloop and a blast to have a shot.
 
DocEmrickSkitters said:
You wonder how much of his historic tendencies were a "can't walk your way off the island" and trying to get attention for his power as he moved up. Now that he knows that he is considered highly enough to where he won't get overlooked if his performance merits, he is refining his approach.
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Honestly - my take is the Bucs development team had a frank discussion with Castro about how unlikely he was to be an MLB player if he didn't raise his walk-rate. His cup of coffee experience in the League last year probably helped him buy in as well.

That's a really hard change to make, especially for the Dominicans.
 
Great work there -- Keller is doing well to aggressively go after these guys and get ahead / dictate the pace. He's really worked Yelich over twice. The fastball still isn't what you want, which contributed to the Tellez HR, but I think Tellez just got a little bit lucky with somehow getting to that location.

I would not let Keller face Wong a third time. If Keller stays dialed in, maybe you roll the dice, but I'm hoping he can get through 5 here and if we need a reliever with him getting 4.1 or 4.2, fine. Prioritize winning the game.
 
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Damn, he might have earned the chance to go against the top of the order again with that inning. He's really dialed in today and efficient. I think I still lean towards pulling the plug and calling it a good day.
 
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DJ Spinoza said:
Damn, he might have earned the chance to go against the top of the order again with that inning. He's really dialed in today and efficient. I think I still lean towards pulling the plug and calling it a good day.
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Keller is a huge silver lining on this game.
 
Keller gets the 6th -- defensible based on him finally getting results, but I'm not sure I like it from a game management standpoint. There's no margin for error at all.
 
Shelton one-upping himself in stupidity with this one. Just let him keep going if you are going to give him the start of the inning and he's still dotting the fastball and getting whiffs.
 
I assume that's what he's being coached to do. When he came up he looked like he could place a ball in a teacup. He doesn't seem to show that anymore. So who knows what's going on there
 
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